Associate Publisher, Happy Yak (Maternity Cover, Fixed Term Contract)

An exciting opportunity has come up to work on one of Quarto’s brand new children’s imprints: Happy Yak. Launching in June 2021, Happy Yak publishes pre-school, picture books and illustrated non-fiction for children aged 0-7. Bright, bold and laugh-out-loud, launch titles include The World’s Most Pointless Animals by Philip Bunting, which has already been sold into 9 languages pre-publication and recently chosen as an Editor’s Pick for amazon.com; and Nikolas Ilic’s First Concepts, a playful, animal-based board book series that teaches young children core early-learning topics. Happy Yak is also the home of two pre-school partnerships, Wee Gallery and – brand new for 2023 publication – Meri Meri. This is a publishing / business-focused role for someone with commercial awareness, management skills, and the ability to maintain the pre-established creative vision for this exciting new list.

The ideal candidate will have experience working at Editorial Director or Publisher level, across a range of Children’s formats. Understanding of early years development and pre-school publishing including novelty board books, bath and cloth books would be a bonus, alongside strong commercial insight and an awareness of current trends in the market.

Key Results Areas

List Management

• With support from the Group Publisher, be the leader on the publishing programme for Happy Yak, overseeing a team of commissioning editors and designers to maintain the brand identity and assess gaps in the market.
• Continue driving forward the new list, liaising regularly with Sales and Marketing in both the UK and US to ensure growth of the imprint.
• Present new titles at the fortnightly Acquisitions meeting.
• Run P&Ls, assess title profitability and advise on author and illustrator fees and royalty rates.
• Comment on book covers, layouts and circulations at various stages of development.
• Take responsibility for achieving the budget set by the Finance Team / CEO for each given year.
• Work with the sales teams and monitor the sales reports to make sure we are hitting our targets in each territory to help us achieve our overall budget.
• Oversee inventory levels to ensure we have the required stock to make our revenue targets.
• Manage key stakeholder relationships including with important authors and brand partnerships.
• Keep abreast of trends in publishing/the wider world to ensure our publishing programme reflects the demands of our consumers, suggesting fast turnaround drop-ins where appropriate.
• Approve co-edition deals where relevant, sign off royalty statements for contributors, advise on inventory and stock requests, sign author and illustrator contracts and invoices.
• Manage day-to-day queries from in-house departments and out-of-house third-party collaborators.

Line Management

• Head up the Happy Yak team, leading team meetings.
• Line-manage and work closely with the Creative Director (who manages the design team), and line-manage two members of the editorial team.
• Carry out quarterly and annual line reviews, working with each direct report to establish goals and a clear plan for how they achieve those goals. 

This job advert is intended to describe the general nature and level of work required of people assigned to this job.  It is not intended to be an all-encompassing list of responsibilities, duties, and skills.

To apply, please email your CV and a covering letter to katie.cotton@quarto.com

Please note that it is necessary that you have the right to live and work in the UK to apply for this position.

The Quarto Group is an equal opportunities employer.  Quarto Publishing plc. is committed to a policy of equality, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring an inclusive and diverse environment.  We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, or belief.